Friday, July 20, 2012

Tragedy averted

The other day I stuck Taran in the car to take him somewhere, but honestly I can't even remember where because the whole memory was wiped out by one beacon panic moment of almost losing the beloved K Bear. K is an essential part of every aspect of our day now - accept for maybe baths - and I find myself in an almost daily panic about what would ever happen if he were to be lost. We bring him on every car trip be it five minutes or five hours and K has helped get us through many a hairy car ride. So anyway, we were driving somewhere and I was late, partially because I was running around the house looking for our trusty pal. When we got out to the car, I threw him on the roof (yes folks, gasp at my thoughtless blunder because you can probably guess where this story is going) so I could strap the little guy into his carseat. And then I drove away. Fast. And didn't return for several hours.
By the time we got home from....Ah yes, it's all coming back to me now, the annual food truck festival....it was bedtime. And if K is a trusty partner-in-crime for many a fun activity throughout the day, he is an absolute vital man-on-board for the journey into dreamland. As soon as we pulled Taran out of the car and I didn't see K lying beside him I knew something was terribly wrong. This is the moment I have been dreading; trying to explain to my two-year-old son the inevitable loss of his beloved companion by his scatterbrained Mom. If there is one image that might help you know how this little bear is cherished, think of Taran sitting in his little chair in the living room corner, caressing K's fur and kissing his worn nose, exclaiming "That's nice" after each tender smooch (which is what we say I guess when we see him do this) and "Love you". This is a multiple-times-a-day occurrence. Before Joe could even fully process what happened I was half-yelling "get him in the house and ready for bed. I've got to find K Bear!". This is so ridiculous. We're talking one foot of grungy, fluffy faux fur, stuffed with polyster and I felt like I had just ax-murdered a dog. I was in such a panic it took me five minutes to figure out the best course of action: Drive down the street? I might whiz by too fast and not see him. Walk? Too slow. I even got as far as pulling my car half way out of the driveway then jumped out to grab my bike instead, then realized my car was actually hanging out in the street so I dropped my bike (in the street of course) to pull the car back into the driveway. Basically, I'm just really hoping the neighbors weren't watching this fiasco.
As it turns out, K was lying in the yard three houses down. A few major tire tread marks across his nose and belly, but otherwise intact. I even had time still to handwash him, throw him through the spin cycle, whir him in the dryer on high until he was fluffy and toasty and still be upstairs to read Taran one final bedtime story and get him down for his usual bedtime. With K of course. Now the next time I bring up to Joe that we really need a back-up K, maybe he won't scoff at me.

8 comments:

Okay I love your writing as always, but as granddad the title frightened me just a bit. And yes sure it would be a tragedy. To this very day I still have my 62 year old "K Bear" lying on top of my bedroom dresser, but please don't scare granddad!

Whew! There is nothing scarier than losing a friend like that. I'm so glad you found him, and I'm sure Taran is, too.

My niece had a similar experience a couple of years ago (she was 12 or so), where her tree kangaroo (Toren) was left behind somewhere. This tree kangaroo was given to her by her favorite person on earth (me) and had been the subject of many long and short stories, as well as the hero in his own tree kangaroo serial (written by Kristen). She had Toren since she was 4, when he was adopted from the Seattle Zoo. Luckily, Toren was found, washed and returned... with many new stories and adventures to share. Whew, indeed!!

OK, I'm super late to the party on this one... Ever since Amelia started her summer vacation three weeks ago, I have been appropriately absent from "netland" but I feel like I've missed a lot! Anyway, just stopped in to say-- Yes, you really should get a backup K-Bear! We had to order another zebra for Amelia on amazon when we permanently lost her original in Seattle. That zebra had been all over the world with us, but we couldn't keep up. We told Amelia that Zebra must have wanted to do some more exploring, and then later let her know we'd gotten an email from Zebra, that she was on her way back, that she would arrive in the mail, in a cardboard box! Of course, when we opened the box, we all marveled that Zebra had obviously had a bath and maybe even gotten a bit of a haircut. I really don't think she suspected anything, and it truly would have been a tragedy. Since then, Zebra has also spent the weekend at the Silverton Oregon library, reading every single book in the place... So glad you found Taran's friend!

Ariana,I've been enjoying reading about all your adventures. It's good to step back from the computer once in a while. I feel too darned glued to the thing most of the time. Although that will probably be less true in the next couple of weeks. We are in the process of driving to Upstate NY to see my family with a one night stop-over to see Joe's - Taran is still not the best car traveller. Even the 2.5 hours to Joe's family was hairy so I'm dreading the 5 hour leg of the trip tomorrow. I always felt jealous reading Harry Potter that magicians could just apparate wherever they wanted to go and be there instantly. I would definitely choose that as a super-hero power as long as I could take people/Taran along with me. So where in the world did Zebra travel to before he landed at his final unknown resting spot? The farthest K-Bear has been is Canada so far. We'll have to broaden his travel horizons soon. As soon as Taran is more manageable for travel. ;)

Once again... Very late! Jeff picked Zebra up for Amelia in Dallas when she was maybe 2.5, and she did the normal PNW travels with us until we moved to Germany. Zebra came with us on all of our adventures there, and managed to also visit France and Italy, until we went back to Portland, then up to Whidbey Island. Then, as we were spending a couple of days in Seattle, she took off on her own adventures. Of course, once she came back to us in her box, she stayed close by, and has been with us since to Turkey, France and Belgium, along with our more local English ventures. Personally, I think that she REALLY wants to visit Greece. I'll do my best to make that happen (for HER, of course!)I hope your travels went well! We definitely went through some super challenging stages with car drives. She's a champ now, but wasn't always cool with the carseat.

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I'm a wish-I-could-stay-at-home, stay-at-home-more-often-than-I-should Mom. Technically I am a 3rd year postdoctoral research fellow in mathematical ecology. Most of the time I'd rather play with my kid than do my research. This doesn't bode well for my future career. Ha! I guess currently I'm just stumbling through life trying to sort out how I can combine my love and enthusiasm for learning with my love of family, food, and exploration.